Bangalore techie is Namma Metro's 10 millionth passenger

Metro finds its mystery woman.For five days, officials of Namma Metro at six stations of the Reach I had an agonising wait that ended on Tuesday.

For five days, officials of Namma Metro at six stations of the Reach I had an agonising wait that ended on Tuesday.

They were anxiously waiting for a woman who travelled on February 6 from Byappanahalli to MG Road station to show up again, so they can give her a pleasant surprise.

Soumya Prakash, a techie who works for a firm on Cunningham Road and a resident of Kalyan Nagar, is the mystery woman, it turns out. She is special for Metro, as she is passenger no. 100,00,000 of the Metro which was launched on October 20, 2011, and whose passenger log has crossed one crore in a span of 16 months.

Soumya was informed on Tuesday that she was Namma Metro’s commuter number one crore. BL Yashvant Chavan, chief public relations officer of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) told DNA said Soumya travelled at 11am on February 6 from Byappanahalli to MG Road, using her smart card.

“After that she has not turned up to travel by Metro. We have video footage of her entering the station and boarding the train.

We were anxiously waiting for her next travel so that we can meet her of her special status. We had her CCTV footage but did not want to disclose her identity without her consent. Privacy of an individual has to be respected,” he said.

Soumya had bought smart card issued by the Namma Metro and availed trip ticket facilities. “We have mechanism to identify her the moment she swipes her card at Metro next time. On Tuesday she travelled by Metro in the morning, but we missed her for the second time. However, in the evening, we managed to identify her and informed her that she is no one crore passenger of Namma Metro,” Chavan said.

Chavan said 1,00,91,227 people have travelled on Namma metro till Monday, earning the BMRCL Rs14.14 crore. On week days, over 15,000 people use the Namma metro between 6am to 10pm and occupancy rate touches 22,000 at week-ends.